I lift therefore I am. Or ... something like that. I've been training in gyms and with weights in some capacity for two decades (this year in fact!). I've yet to win a major bodybuilding, powerlifting or weightlifting title. Neither will my lifts, sacred though they are to me, ever be something to write home… Continue reading Why Do We Train?
In the late nineteenth century, before the internet, before broadband, before anyone had even heard the word influencer, people still argued about fitness with the same mix of certainty, panic and wounded pride you find today in any comment thread. They just did it on paper. They did it with fountain pens and postage stamps.… Continue reading The First Fitness Comment Section
I spent last week in the Sma Glen and lifted one of the most unusual stones in Scotland. The Saddlin Mare looks ordinary from the road. A rounded stone of about two hundred pounds lies at its base. The task is straightforward. Pick up the stone. Bring it to the plinth. Work it up the… Continue reading Saddlin the Mare, Or Why I Pushed a Rock Up a Boulder
WITH regard to the routine of training, I again repeat, my idea is not to develop muscle at the expense of either health or strength. It is really impossible for me to prescribe special exercises with fixed time limits for same, and fixed days for each individual who may ready this book, as we are… Continue reading Arthur Saxon, ‘Routine of Training’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1906)
Everyone has an opinion on how to squat. High bar, low bar, toes forward, knees out, belt on, belt off. Coaches argue, lifters swear loyalty, and internet experts defend technique like sacred doctrine. Yet most of the things we treat as universal truths in squatting are barely a century old. The movement has never been… Continue reading How the Back Squat Took Over the Gym (and Why Its Future Is Still Being Written)
For centuries, breath has been more than a sign of life. it has been a symbol of strength, balance, and awareness. In ancient India, yogic texts described pranayama as the bridge between body and mind - a discipline through which movement became conscious and refined. The Greeks, too, recognized the power of controlled breathing: in… Continue reading Guest Post: A History of Breath and Movement: From Ancient Practices to Modern Rehabilitation
Set in 1970s San Diego, cult comedy movie Anchorman featured a brief skit about jogging. In the scene, lead character Ron Burgundy attempts to explain the new fashionable jogging craze to his colleagues. Struggling to come to terms with the concept himself, Ron settles on "running for a prolonged distance of time...it's supposed to be wild."… Continue reading When Did Jogging Become Popular in the United States?
You may walk past a park bar today and see someone straining through a muscle-up, holding themselves sideways in a “human flag”, or flowing through a freestyle routine. To most, this looks like a modern trend, fitness popularised through Instagram and YouTube. Yet, calisthenics — training with nothing but your own bodyweight — carries a… Continue reading Guest Post: The Social and Cultural History of Calisthenics
Okay, you pencil-neck geeks, listen up. I am sick and tired of people dogging on upright rows. It is tired, clichéd, and predictable. Don't believe me? Check out any generic 'exercises to avoid' article and you'll usually find upright rows there. I am not an exercise scientist, but I am an angry historian which makes… Continue reading Why Does Everyone Hate Upright Rows?
This is one of the odder products examined on this website, and that is really saying something! One of the great issues facing parents and schoolmasters is how to get kids excited about exercising. Well, a century ago, Eugen Sandow claimed to have the solution. What do kids love more than anything else? Candy! With… Continue reading Eugen Sandow’s Combined Toy and Physical-Culture Apparatus (1913)
